BERLIN VACATION!

By the Original Berlin wall (there is still 20 meters of it still up)

The 20 meters of Berlin wall still standing

This is the library. Beautiful.

This is the post office.  My post office isn't this pretty.

 Jewish Cemetary dedicated after WWII.  Peaceful place to visit. So many stones:

Germany Capital building (I think this was).  First time I've seen a Germany flag flying with pride (minus the soccer games)

"The Gate" pictures of me and McCord and mccord with the soldiers for tourists, etc.

The Gate

Hauptbahnhof = Train station.

The Center of the city

Destruction purposefully left from WWII for historical reasons.

2 same companies that were on each side of the wall and now they are right next door after the wall was taken down.

The Berlin Museum

Poseidon's Fountain

Spider-Man Saves Child With Autism

COACH

Münster Mammuts Report:

We just got done with our 2-day camp. It was fantastic! We should have done it 2 months ago instead of 2 weeks before the first game. For the first time I'm starting feel like the offense is organized, people know their positions, and that the receivers know their routes. We saw some good things and some things that we need to work on. We gutted the play book and made it more simple. All of the players simply seem more comfortable. It's going to be an interesting season. Too bad I'll only be here for half of it. The Juniors have their first game next week. I'll let you know more later.

Fair in Münster

The fair came to Münster this weekend. So we took the train downtown, past the musical people...

Over the river....

To the FAIR!

Everything was pretty much the same as any stereotypical traveling fair: rides, arcade, games for stuffed animals, cotton candy, etc. But I took some pictures of some things that I thought were out of the ordinary for the enjoyment of everyone back home.

Of course, at any German event, there must be BEER. I took a snapshot of one of the little pubs that was traveling with the fair

If you look close, this is a coconut fountain. you can buy slices of fresh coconut:

These guys made pizza in an old fashioned stone oven. They were dressed funny, and having a great time.

These big brown things are meat. If you order a "hiro" (a greek dish), they cut a huge long piece of meat off these huge pieces and put it on a plate for you with whatever topping you want.

If you can see...Yes, these are dentist tools. You can buy your own dentist tools to do your dental work at home. We will forever be talking about how weird we thought this was. =)

We had a great time at the fair and were sure glad that we went. Not too many differences, so it was nice to eat cotton candy and some roasted nuts. Mmm.

Top 10 Differences between the US and Germany:

10 - Wood houses vs. cement houses
9 - Bakery located every 10 ft in Germany.
8 - No grocery bags or baggers at the german grocery store
7 - Average family has 1.2 children in Germany.
6 - Bunny rabbits, and mole holes EVERYWHERE.
5 - Thousands of years of history vs. hundreds of years of history
4 - Freedom of choice vs. little choice (work and school)
3 - German's idea of having fun is drinking and talking. (legal drinking age is 16)
2 - No customer service in Germany
1 - Socialism vs. Capitalism!

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Take a minute and listen! (sound is must for this)

Larsen Family growing and growing

The Larsen family continues to get bigger. We have 2 new additions to the family:

IAN JUSTIN LARSEN
Happy parents: Justin and Alesa Larsen

Addition #2 is Dallas's beautiful new wife:

BRITTANY FOSTER LARSEN

We are so happy that our family continues to get larger and larger. We are so lucky to have such a great family (on both sides). We love you all and miss you!

Football Coach

GO MUNSTER MAMMUTS!!!
(Posted by McCord)
For those of you who don't already know this, I have been hired to coach the recievers and quarterbacks of the Munster Mammuts (Mammoths) football team, here in Germany. We're getting ready to start the season and we've got a long way to go before we're ready. In the past, there has been one coach and no support from the administration. This year however, we now have 5 coaches, a new benifactor that has given us some money for new equipment, and some new players. The new administration has been working very hard by getting us some news conferences, posting some pictures in the newspapers, as well as helping us with some recruiting from the surrounding areas. I just wish that everybody would show up to every practice. That would be sweet! However, Germans are not used to being pushed. They're also not used to getting hit. One of my recievers has a bruised arm that the doctor said is going to take him out for 6 weeks. It's crazy. On a positive note, one of my recievers, who has never played football before this year approached me and said, "I have played soccer for 20 years and have accomplished many things. I have not had a team that I felt like was my family. I want to be here for MY team." This is a point that the coaches have tried really hard to stress. So we must be doing something right. This league is what they call a division 4 league. They are good here they have the opportunity to move up to a professional level. So we are doing our best to teach them the skills that they will need to be successful. We'll see how the season goes once we're actually able to put 11 guys on each side of the field. More later...